During the holiday season I go a little overboard with Dutch Christmas Cookies . It is the only time of the year I eat them. At the end of Christmas I am left with a bunch of empty tins, that for quite some time, have lived in my pantry, collecting dust. While I could just throw them out or give them to a thrift store, I thought this year I could make Cross Stitched Sewing Box for all my stitchy friends.

The supplies you need for this project are:

Cookie TinSpray PaintDrill with small drill bit that you can get your yarn or floss through the holeWashi TapeGlueCardboardScissorsYarn or floss Pen Image to cross stitch

Creating your pattern on your tin could be your first or second step, depending on what you feel comfortable with. I spray painted my tin first and then added my pattern. The only problem I came up with is that I needed to touch up the paint job after drilling the pattern. If you paint afterwards, you may fill in the holes with paint. At any rate, to add the pattern to top of the tin does require the use of a drill so remember your safety glasses. Tape your pattern onto the lid of the tin and then drill the SQUARES of the graph. Think of how you are going to stitch the cross and this will be a no brainer. Stitch all for corner of each stitch.

As you can see from the picture, the holes create a box for your cross stitch.

Once you have your holes drilled, your lid should look like this.

I used an acrylic yarn to cross stitch the lid but you can use floss if you wish. Acrylic yarn will cause a slight fray, but I kind of like it because it gives the tin a sweater feel to it.

Once the lid is done, you can work on the inside of the tin...the guts. Cut two pieces of heavy weight cardboard. One 7.50 inches and the other roughly 4. If your tin is bigger than the average cookie tin, measure your piece of cardboard before cutting.

I did a preplacement before gluing everything in place. Now that you have everything in place you can glue it in! I glued the two pieces of cardboard together first and then glued it to the bottom of the tin. I used a pen to place where the cardboard was going to sit. I used a glue gun but you can use gorilla glue or another kind of epoxy.

For the stocking swap I wanted to make my partner something bright and fun and something she could display all year round. The house is covered with washi tape. The tree can be taken out after Christmas and the house can be displayed for spring and summer.